Yes, the price at the pump will (in theory) go up 37 cents for a month, which is proof that we must never punish an oil company, because there is no more hideous fate imaginable than imagining that one oil company getting slapped with a fine for wrongdoing will make oil prices skyrocket and the economy will collapse and zombies will feast on the flesh of children and the living will envy the dead.

No matter what they do, without exception, we just smile and tell them, "Please be nice to us, oil companies. See, we didn't sue you!" Then the prices at the pump will surely go down. Alternatively we could invade another oil-rich country, the other guaranteed technique.

This is in addition to the fact that BP will end up paying far less than $1B. That number is for the headlines to get yahoos riled up and screaming about how gas prices will SKYROCKET and besides I HATES THEM LAWYERS, gittin' whatever they can git, this here is MURICA, where yer supposed to not just go grabbin' money with both fists lessen yer a JOB CREATER who done URNED IT.